Golden Horde and Russia

200 years of Horde domination significantly influenced Russian culture. Many traditions and everyday habits were adopted from the conquerors.

The Tatar-Mongol invasion and subsequent dependence on the Ulus Jochi - the Golden Horde - had a great impact on the cultural, political and economic development of the Russian lands. This influence was reflected in the further history of our country - the problem of the Horde trace in the formation of Russia has become one of the key issues in the disputes of Russian historians and philosophers up to the present day.

Nikolai Karamzin also wrote in his multivolume "History of the Russian State" that "Moscow owes its greatness to the khans." Historians of the 19th century, such as S.M. Solovyov, pointed to the undoubtedly destructive influence of the Mongol rule, which threw the Russian lands back in its development several centuries ago. A turn from the negative perception of the Horde heritage was outlined in the first half of the 20th century, but only in the emigre environment. The "Eurasian" movement openly wrote about Russia as the heir to the Mongol Empire and the Golden Horde in particular. For example, the author of the biography of Genghis Khan, a Kalmyk historian who lived in exile, E. Khara-Davan, wrote: "the influence of the Mongol domination, these [Russian] principalities and tribes were merged together, forming first the Muscovy and later the Russian Empire."

Soviet historians continued the line of their predecessors of the 19th century and noted that the role of the Golden Horde in the formation of Russian statehood lay in the fact that it was in the struggle against the Horde dependence that Russia was forged, which after some time took a leading position in the world.

Disputes about how strongly the Golden Horde influenced the statehood and legal system of Russia will never subside. There will always be apologists for the "Eurasians" or radical "patriots". Nevertheless, the influence of the eastern culture of Ulus Jochi on the traditions of the population of the Russian principalities, primarily in everyday life, gastronomic preferences, clothing, is evident. Some borrowings can be observed in our daily life with you today.

The long interaction of the Russian principalities and the Tatar rulers inevitably led to the borrowing of words. In the "Dictionary of Turkisms in the Russian language" the domestic linguist E. Shipova cited one and a half thousand words. Of course, not all of them entered the everyday life of the Russian people during the Horde dependence, but it is difficult to overestimate the degree of influence of the Tatars and Mongols on our language.

Borrowings are observed by linguists in those spheres of public life where the interaction of the Slavs and the Tatar-Mongol invaders was the closest. This applies primarily to financial relations and military affairs. Probably the most famous borrowing can be called the word "money", which has become firmly established in our language. Türkic origin is also "treasury", "tamga", from which the word "customs" originated. "Guard", without which it is impossible to imagine an army life, also came from the Horde. Even the battle cry "Hurray!" borrowed from the Turkic languages: the Mongolian "uragsha", which means "forward", served as the father for an encouraging exclamation.

Even many proverbs and sayings that we often use in everyday communication are often only literal translations of Tatar phraseological units. “They don’t look a gift horse in the mouth”, “Every sandpiper praises his swamp”, “The dog barks - the caravan moves on” - all these sayings are rooted in the Turkic culture and were borrowed by the Slavs. Some ethnographers see a Tatar or Mongolian trace even in such seemingly primordially Russian amusements as ditties.

The Horde influence can be seen in things that we don't really think about. An excellent example of such borrowing is the kitchen. Pepper, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg - all these spices were imported into Europe in the 13th-14th centuries through the southern Russian steppes, and part of the trade flow also fell into the territory of the Russian principalities. The addiction to melons and watermelons also dates back to a time of Horde dependence.

The same can be said about many products: noodles, rice, manti, lavash, dried fruits came to Russia thanks to the Golden Horde. Beloved by all ages, kvass, without which it was impossible to imagine a summer day off during the late USSR, is also an invention that came to our table thanks to the transit through the Golden Horde.

The Zolotordyn heritage is clearly visible in everyday relations between people. Subservience, reverence for the boss, fear of saying an extra word against his opinion - according to many researchers, this trait was borrowed from the political culture of the Mongol-Tatar conquerors.

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